(New Hampshire Primary Source covers breaking and behind-the-scenes news and analysis on the New Hampshire presidential primary and all things political in the Granite State. John DiStaso is the most experienced political writer in New Hampshire and has been writing a weekly column since 1982.)

RAND RETURNS NEXT WEEK. Fresh from his continuing battle against NSA bulk data collection and key provisions of the Patriot Act – and his Wednesday charges that Republican “hawks” are responsible for the growing strength of the Islamic State – Rand Paul will return to the New Hampshire next week.

New Hampshire Primary Source has learned that the Kentucky senator is expected to be in the state on June 5 through June 7. A key stop will be the opening of Paul’s campaign headquarters at 50 Bridge St., Manchester.

We’ve also learned that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will continue his focus on the first-primary state, with two visits planned during the next two weeks. More about that below.

Paul will be making his first visit to the state since his quick stop on May 11.

Love him or despise him, Paul continues to be a maverick in the Republican lineup.

His recent 10-hour floor speech led to a standoff last weekend over key provisions of the Patriot Act. One of them, the terrorist tracking program, is scheduled to expire on June 1, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell law is warning senators to be ready to return to Washington on Sunday to address it.

Paul on Wednesday said on a national talk show, “ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave (arms) indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS.”

“They created these people,” Paul said, also blaming hawk-ish Republicans for supporting “Hillary Clinton’s war in Libya.”

Paul’s main antagonist in the Senate, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, (whose eye-roll as Paul spoke on the Senate floor last Friday was captured on video) will coincidentally be in the state two days before Paul returns, and he will (as usual) speak about foreign policy.

The venue will be the Americans for Peace, Prosperity and Security National Security Forum on June 3 at the University of New Hampshire-Manchester, hosted by board member Walt Havenstein, the Republican former candidate for governor.

Paul campaign adviser Doug Stafford responded, “It is ironic Gov. Jindal would level such a charge when he flip-flops on crucial issues like Common Core and national security, and he has cratered his own state’s economy and budget.”

Jindal was to be in the state Friday as a guest on the Belknap County Republican Committee’s annual cruise of Lake Winnipesaukee, but he recently cancelled, leaving four potential candidates – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Govs. Bob Ehrlich of Maryland, Jim Gilmore of Virginia and George Pataki of New York – and one former candidate, former Ambassador John Bolton, as the featured speakers.

Pataki, by the way, on Thursday will become the first hopeful to formally announce his candidacy in New Hampshire. The rally is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Exeter Town Hall. He noted in a tweet on Wednesday that Abraham Lincoln once spoke there, in 1860, five years after its opening.

CRUZ, WALKER, O’MALLEY, CHRISTIE, KASICH. The fight over the Patriot Act has forced Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to cut short his weekend New Hampshire schedule. He arrives on Friday and had been planning to stay through Monday, but it’s now a two-day visit.

Cruz on Friday will attend a reception with conservative business owners at Legacy Financial Solutions in Manchester and hold a meet-and-greet at Franklin Pierce University’s Spagnuolo Hall.

On Saturday, he will attend a town hall at Southern New Hampshire University, a house party at the Mont Vernon home of state Rep. Bill and Roxanne O’Brien and then head to Andover, Massachusetts, for a meet-and-greet at a private home.

Postponed were a Sunday meet-and-greet in Salem and a Monday appearance before the New Hampshire House Business Caucus in Concord.

Walker, in addition to attending the Belknap County GOP cruise, will speak at the next Concord Republican Committee Politics and Pie event on Saturday afternoon at the Snow Shoe Club in Concord. He’ll also speak at the Rockingham County Republican Freedom Founders Dinner at the Executive Court in Manchester.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, after formally becoming third Democrat to announce for president in Baltimore on Saturday, will be back in the state on Sunday for stops at the Goldenrod Drive-In restaurant in Manchester, at a party at the home of Debra Hastings and Jerry Slagle in Gilford and the Baker-Berry Library at Dartmouth College.

Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will return to the state on June 4 and 5, and, New Hampshire Primary Source has learned, Christie will return again on June 8 and 9.

Christie, after getting positive reviews for his speech at the recent Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City, will attend a fundraiser on June 4 for Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas and hold a town hall at the Derry VFW. On June 5, he will host his New Hampshire second roundtable on drug addiction recovery, this one with Franklin Mayor Ken Merrifield and Merrimack County Sheriff Scott Hilliard, at the Webster Place in Franklin.

When Christie returns on June 8, he will hold a town hall meeting in Hillsborough County at a location to be announced and attend a house party hosted by business executives Bill Greiner and Tom Boucher at Greiner’s home in Bedford.

Christie will be featured at a Politics and Eggs event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on June 9.

Kasich, after hiring veteran strategist Paul Collins as the state director for his New Day for America PAC, will have stops at the Seacoast on June 4 and will speak at the Grafton County Republican Committee’s First-in-the-Nation Primary Dinner, along with former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich, at the Lebanon Elks Lodge, on June 5.

KURT: BERNIE WILL BE FINE. The new state director for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign just doesn’t see Secretary of State Bill Gardner seriously trying to keep the independent Vermont senator off of the Democratic presidential primary ballot.

We reported on April 30 that Sanders may have difficulty proving that he is a registered Democrat when the time comes in the fall for candidates to officially file for the first-in-the-nation primary.

Vermont is an “open” state. Any registered voter can vote in either party primary.

Other candidates over the years have come from “open” states and were not registered Republicans or Democrats in their home states, and have filed without incident for the New Hampshire primary.

But the difference with Sanders, as Gardner sees it, is that he twice rejected the nomination of the Democratic Party when he ran for the U.S. Senate in Vermont, pro-actively opting to remain an independent.

Gardner made it clear, “At the time he files for the primary, he has got to be a registered member of a party. What he is right now is not going to be the deciding factor. It’s what he is at the time.”

“He’s running as a Democrat, and yes, in Vermont, there is no party registration,” Ehrenberg said. “But I don’t think that affects his eligibility in New Hampshire in any meaningful way. He is prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure that he is on the ballot and follow the rules in whatever states he decides to run.”

Ehrenberg predicted Gardner will not try to keep Sanders off of the ballot.

“I don’t think Bill Gardner would get in the way of a popular candidate from a neighboring state,” Ehrenberg said. “He is much fairer than that.”

“Bill Gardner is guarding the New Hampshire primary, and it would be totally counter-productive to take out a candidate who is popular, doing well in the polls and brings so much to the debate,” Ehrenberg said.

Ehrenberg doesn’t see a problem with Sanders’ eligibility as long as he shows he is a Democrat.

“It’s a free country,” he said. “You can switch party anytime you want. People go from independent to Democrat back to independent all the time in New Hampshire. How can that be an issue? But if it is, we will have our attorneys address it.”

O’CONNOR CALLS FOR PROBE OF GUINTA. The only announced candidate for the 1st District U.S. House seat next year, Democrat Shawn O’Connor of Bedford, has asked U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to launch a criminal probe of Rep. Frank Guinta’s acceptance of what the Federal Election Commission has determined were illegal campaign contributions.

O’Connor wrote that if Lynch and Raymond Husler, acting chief of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, find that Guinta broke federal law, “I hope that you will protect the integrity of our electoral process by fully and swiftly investigating and prosecuting any violations. Given the size and likely impact of these potentially criminal acts on the electoral process, I hope that, if you find a violation, you will pursue the maximum penalty of five years in prison.”

“We need a congressman who can do the business of the people of the district, and clearly, Frank Guinta cannot do that,” O’Connor said. “He is completely impaired at this point. It is time for a new generation of leadership.”

The Guinta probe by the FEC focused on a bank account he listed on 2010 personal financial disclosure filing, a requirement of the U.S. House Clerk’s Office.

Interestingly, O’Connor did not file his disclosure report for 2014 by the just-passed May 15 deadline. He instead requested a 90-day extension, raising the curiosity of some Democrats who are following his campaign with interest.

“My accountant needed more time to pull things together,” O’Connor said. “It’s a standard request and it was approved without question.”

CAROL AND DAN. Speaking of Guinta, his two-time Democratic foe, former Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, continues to lie low in the wake of the FEC disclosure and calls for his resignation by Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster.

And Guinta’s 2014 Republican primary opponent, Dan Innis, continues to be the subject of much speculation that he may run for the seat again next year.

Innis, for his part, is avoiding getting the Guinita controversy.

“I think this is a difficult situation,” Innis told New Hampshire Primary Source this week.

Innis is the state Republican Party’s finance director and a member of its executive committee. But he said he did not attend the May 18 meeting at which the executive committee issued a statement that stopped short of calling on Guinta to resign. The statement said that Guinta is “accountable to his constituents,” and that the committee would take “no further action” unless more information emerges.

Innis declined to comment on the executive committee action.

PROMINENT SUPPORT. Guinta is being backed today by 100 Granite Staters in a full page ad in the New Hampshire Union Leader. The ad is funded by Braveheart PAC, whose treasurer is prominent New Hampshire business executive Gus Fromuth, who heads Power New England.

AYOTTE’S AD? It’s a little early for an campaign ad, but a crew from Massachusetts-based Weisman Video Production shot video of Sen. Kelly Ayotte at Tuesday’s forum featuring her and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on the Veterans Choice Card program at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

Weisman production manager Andy Jablon confirmed his company was hired by a public relations firm associated with Ayotte’s campaign committee. Ayotte campaign manager Ben Sparks said he had no knowledge of an ad being shot at the event.

ON THE COVER. Ayotte, by the way, was on the cover of CQ Weekly as one of the “25 Women Changing Congress and the Culture of Politics.” She was featured in the accompanying CQ Roll Call e-book on powerful women, which named her a top dealmaker, alongside Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Patty Murray of Washington and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.

The story pointed out that Ayotte “has been willing to break from her party,” citing her vote on an amendment giving all legally married same-sex couples equal access to Social Security and veterans benefits and her support for comprehensive immigration legislation.

Ayotte was also named the seventh most bipartisan senator and the fourth most bipartisan Republican senator by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s School of Public Policy. The index ranked members of Congress based on their bill sponsorships and co-sponsorships.

CHARGED WITH VOTER SUPPRESSION. The man who acknowledged to a New Hampshire newspaper sending a bogus political press release two weeks was arrrested last week.

he release purported to be an announcement by Republican state representative candidate Yvonne Dean-Bailey that she was dropping out of the Rockingham County District 32 special House election was arrested last week.

Carl Gibson of Concord was charged with voter suppression for knowingly attempting to “induce voters to refrain from voting,” according to the Attorney General’s Office. Voter suppression is a class B felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison and up to a $4,000 fine. Gibson will be arraigned on June 22.

GRAHAM STAFFS UP. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s team in New Hampshire has added field staffer Stephen Bowen, a 2014 graduate of Saint Anselm College. Bowen was also the Londonderry town chair on former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's presidential campaign.

He joins previously announced Graham New Hampshire state director Joe Doiron, the former state director for the conservative group Generation Opportunity.

(John DiStaso can be reached at jdistaso@hearst.com or distasoj@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jdistaso and on Facebook: Facebook.com/JohnDiStasoWMUR.)